Deepavali

Deepavali (or Festival of Lights) is a Hindu holiday that is celebrated here in Singapore. It's a holiday celebrating good triumphing over evil and is probably the biggest celebration of the year for Hindu's. Today is a national holiday here in Singapore for it's celebration. Last night I took the kids to Little India to see the lights and experience some of the celebration. This was kind of a crazy thing to do by myself (Craig had to work) but my desire to see it outweighed my fears. We had dinner at a yummy Indian restaurant and then walked around town a bit (tried to, at least).

They had lots of beautiful lights hanging all across the streets - it was very cool.

By evening time, it was EXTREMELY crowded. It was hard to walk down the streets.
We also visited this Hindu temple and saw some of the things they did to prepare for the holiday. Inside, there were interestingly dressed men decorating alters with fruit and flowers and people worshoping.

Little India is famous for it's bangles and bracelets. There are lots of these stores with walls and walls of bracelets, and baskets out front. We had a fun time but it was really hard to maneuver the crowds. We're looking forward to returning to Little India one Saturday when it's not so crazy and we can do a bit of shopping (except for Dallin - I don't think he wants to see any more bracelets). It's important to me that my kids understand the different holidays here and know a little more of why they don't have school today.